1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a printer, a printer control method, and to a printer control program, and relates more particularly to a printer that has an automatic paper cutter and is used in a point-of-sale (POS) system, to a control method for the printer, and to a control program.
2. Description of Related Art
Compact printers with an automatic paper cutter, including thermal printers and dot impact printers as taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H05-077504, have conventionally been used in POS systems for printing receipts.
Receipt printers of this type typically use roll paper, that is, a continuous paper tape that is wound in a roll, because roll paper enables the efficient storage of the printing paper in a confined space.
During actual use, the purchased products, product prices, total amount, and other information is printed on the paper as the paper is pulled off the roll, and the paper is then cut by an automatic paper cutter inside the printer when printing is completed. The automatic paper cutter may completely sever the printed portion of the paper (full-cut), or leave a portion of the paper uncut (partial cut).
With the prior art compact printer described above, the user, such as a cash register operator, may also pull a length of paper off the roll to write a memo or note as may be necessary.
The foregoing automatic paper cutter operates after printing, however, and does not operate when the paper is advanced by pressing a feed button. As a result, the paper may become skewed and jam when the user forcibly pulls and tears off the paper, and the user must take time to rethread the paper or correct the paper jam.